Let's talk MotoGP: Here's why Pecco Bagnaia can cement his legend

The 2024 season starts today! Until the first Grand Prix of the Season, Let's talk MotoGP will try to detail as best as possible the expectations surrounding all the drivers, around Pecco Bagnaia. This will be accompanied by a short prediction, and of course, you are invited to give yours in comments. Yesterday, we continued this series with Fabio Di Giannantonio, in an article that you can find by clicking here.

 

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What more can be said ? Pecco Bagnaia ended the year 2023 as a big winner, thanks to exploits as incredible as each other. The Italian went to get his crown in Valencia, overcoming Jorge Martin who was short of solutions. I have already covered this historic season extensively, notably in an article that you can find by clicking here.

What to expect for 2024? Expectations are very high within the official Ducati team. Already, we all agree on one point; he is the favorite, exactly as he was a year ago at the same time. He has proven enough, demonstrated enough, too, that he was legitimate to this status. He created a significant gap between himself and the others to acquire this position, as feared as it was coveted. Bagnaia must win.

 

 

It won't be easy, because the board MotoGP will tighten further, it has been inexorable since 2016 and the introduction of the single ECU. But I think he will have the best machine, because the GP24 could turn out to be much more flamboyant than the GP23, which, let's remember, was never completely mastered by "Go Free" until the end. His passages in Q1 attested to this.

So, yes, two other tenors will be equipped with this mount. I'm not going to bother mentioning Franco Morbidelli to avoid blatant disrespect, but we must first mention his teammate Enea Bastianini. Injured throughout the 2023 season, or almost, he showed, in 2022, that he had the ability to compete – and even beat – Pecco Bagnaia in a duel. At Pramac Racing, Jorge Martin, his rival from last year, who is also able to defeat him occasionally, or even make him tremble as we saw in the last Grands Prix to date.

But in my opinion, Bagnaia is still a notch above. None of the drivers mentioned above have proven enough, have been consistent enough to compete for a world championship title in the main concerned. Even the “Martinator”, who ultimately didn’t finish that far behind in points.

 

 

There remains the threat Marc Marquez, on everyone's lips for several months. Yes, it's true, Marquez is inherently better than Pecco. And he has bigger baggage, too. But already, even if we omit the difference in equipment and team, I have maintained for a while now that Marc Marquez has never had to deal with a driver as strong as Bagnaia since Lorenzo and Rossi in 2016. He arrives in a new team, on a high-performance machine, certainly, but not cut out for and by him.

Bagnaia is therefore in excellent momentum, still has significant room for improvement (if it stops falling, the seasons will seem long to us), and without any real rival asserted before kick-off. Moreover, he crushed the tests at Losail even if that is not a determining criterion, let us be clear. All the signals are green as they have rarely been for anyone in recent years.

 

 

The prognosis

 

I will be brief. World champion. You will have understood it if you have followed this column for a long time, but Pecco Bagnaia is a driver who impresses me. On the bike, he achieves feats that few in history have been capable of. He is a notch above Martin and Bastianini, who I imagine are fighting for second place overall. At this point in his career, after three titles including two at the highest level, to deny it would be bad faith. Just look at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix and Indonesian Grand Prix to convince yourself.

Only Marc Marquez, in fact, has the capacity to do the same and above all, to maintain such a level over an entire season. If I imagine the eight-time champion rather in the game, his package will not be enough for him, and he will come up against, like others, the qualities rarely seen before with which Pecco Bagnaia is endowed. I think of his racing intelligence, already much higher than that of Marc Marquez and at least equal to that of a Jorge Lorenzo or a Casey Stoner – in my humble opinion.

 

 

More than a title, I see a demonstration of strength, with a significant gap on the second. In 2022 as in 2023, he had not managed to put everything in place to win ahead. But this time, for a reason that I cannot explain, I imagine him achieving a reference year, as if the stars were aligned. This would ensure his place in history, and allow him to be unanimously considered one of the greatest of all time, That's not the case today.

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but it's also a prediction game! At the end of the season, I will come back to these and compare them with reality. Waiting for, tell me yours in comments!

 

 

Cover photo: Michelin Motorsport